An explorer wrote his tragic final words in his journal just before he was killed by an uncontacted tribe on a remote island.
He had planned to bring Christianity to the island, but that plan failed quite spectacularly and cost him his life.
John Allen Chau was a missionary who tried to visit North Sentinel Island
The first thing we should note is that the Sentinelese people are an uncontacted tribe living on the remote North Sentinel Island, part of the Andaman Island chain in the Indian Ocean.
They are famously hostile to intruders and really want to be left alone by the outside world.
What’s more, they have a right to that, and people are not supposed to be traveling to the island - for the safety of the people who live there, but also for their own safety.
John Allen Chau broke those rules, and found out to his cost that the Sentinelese were quite happy living estranged from the outside world and the word of Jesus Christ.
In 2018, he disembarked from a boat and tried to contact the islanders with hopes of converting them.
As he arrived in his canoe, he was shot at with arrows.
John Allen Chau’s final journal entry
The people of North Sentinel Island are known to kill interlopers, and Chau fell victim to their suspicions of outsiders.
He was last seen alive when he was dropped off near the island by a fisherman, and while no-one actually saw him die, another fisherman also said that he witnessed a ‘dead person being buried at the shore’.
Before he died, Chau wrote some words in his journal, a final letter and prayer for his mission.
He said he was ‘doing this to establish the kingdom of Jesus on the island’ and added: ”You guys might think I'm crazy in all this but I think it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people,
"Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed."
The note continued: "Rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever he has called you to and I'll see you again when you pass through the veil.
"This is not a pointless thing - the eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can't wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language as Revelations 7:9-10 states.
“I love you all and I pray none of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ."